Football on Thanksgiving day?

It was a popular and frequent event in Bluffton in the 1920s and early 1930s. The photo with this story shows the starting 11 on Bluffton’s 1929 team, which was one of the all-time great squads, as you will see by the game scores. BHS was only scored on three times.

This team also had the unfortunate distinction of losing only one game – to the Pandora Flying Dutchmen. Bluffton finished the season at 8-1.

Carl Smucker, the team quarterback, years later, claimed most of the Bluffton players went hunting the night before the Pandora game, thinking that Pandora was a pushover. The rest is history.

This was the first-ever BHS team with an official mascot – the Pirates. And on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1929, one month after a dramatic stock market crash, the Pirates played and defeated Columbus Grove 44-0.

Here’s the game recap from the BHS yearbook:

“For the fourth consecutive time Columbus Grove was defeated in the Turkey Day struggle.  It was evident by this time that the Pirates had “come back.”  The game was played on a snow-covered field. (Note: We assume “come back” refers to the loss against Pandora.)

“Bluffton took the ball down the field without any trouble. Although Columbus Grove was doped to win, Bluffton found little trouble in defeating them.

“Captain Griffith, Triplehorn and Smucker took honors in this game. This was the largest score by which Bluffton has ever beat Columbus Grove.

“Seniors on that team were Carl Smucker, quarterback; Richard Bixel and Dana Whitmer, guards; Herbert Coon, end; Vernon Steiner, tackle, and Karl Hostettler, numeral man." (We assume he was the team stats keeper.)

In addition to being the first-ever Bluffton team called the Pirates, the team played a non-league schedule and most of the opponents were larger schools than Bluffton. Home games were played at Harmon Field in the daytime as there were no lights on the field.

Bluffton’s coach, Andrew Robeson, was also the biology and general science teacher. The 1929-30 school year was his first at Bluffton.

The 1929 team’s record:
21-0 Lima Central High
52-0 Van Wert
12-7 Bellefontaine
38-0 Shawnee
27-0 Liberty Township
14-7 Ada
0-7 Pandora
44-0 Van Buren
44-0 Columbus Grove